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Grants available for rural communities

Applications are now being accepted for the Community Grants Program of the Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation. The deadline to submit applications is Dec. 15, 2015.

Grants up to $10,000 will be awarded to qualified nonprofit organizations or entities of local and state government to support projects in communities with a population of less than 6,000. Eligible communities must be located in one of the following counties: Adair, Atoka, Bryan, Caddo, Cherokee, Choctaw, Coal, Greer, Harmon, Haskell, Jackson, Johnston, Kiowa, Latimer, Le Flore, McCurtain, Pushmataha, Sequoyah, Tillman or Washita.

The projects should be new or a significant expansion of a current effort that will provide positive additional impact to the community in one of three areas:
1) arts/culture/history, 2) health or 3) libraries/literacy.

In addition, the projects should benefit a broad range of individuals in the community and not be limited to a small segment of the population. There should also be matching support for the projects from other resources in the community.

The late Carolyn Watson, longtime CEO and chairman of Shamrock Bank, N.A. established the Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation in 1995 to improve the quality of life in designated rural communities in southern Oklahoma. A grant program was adopted to support programs and projects that will provide opportunities for citizens to improve themselves and their communities. The grant program is administered by the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.

All grant applications must be submitted by Dec. 15, 2015. The grant application and complete guidelines are available at ruraloklahoma.org. Please contact Jana Steelman at 405/606-2941 or j.steelman@occf.org if you have any questions or need any additional information.